Throughout the 1950s and the early 1960s privateer manufacturers began emerging from Britain, entering Grands Prix around the world. Some of them had their fair share of success in Formula One. You might recognise names such as Lotus, Cooper, Vanwall and the reformed B.R.M. They may have had amateur spirit, but on the track they raced like professionals. They were innovators in F1, taking the battle to the major works teams and winning multiple drivers and constructors championships.

Then there were those that raced like amateurs. Drivers over 50 years of age making their debut. Passing off designs from other teams and claiming it as their own. Filling their cars up with the wrong fuel. All this before the glory days of Lotus, Vanwall and the like.As it was, Bill Aston was that amateur.Part 1: The Late BloomerBorn in 1900, Aston was involved in World War One during his youth before starting up a moderately successful venture into… fruit farming. Yes, that’s how he made his fortune. Aside from his agricultural adventures, Aston was also a prominent test pilot. This job got Aston involved in engineering and aerodynamics, which eventually saw “Big Bill”, as he was known, enter the motor racing scene. You might be thinking at this point that Bill must’ve started racing between the wars, right?You’d be far off the mark. Bill Aston’s first recorded motor race was in 1949. He was 49 years old.To give Bill his dues, he didn’t do all too badly for a 49 year-old amateur debutant, quickly becoming a recognisable name in 500cc racing and Formula Three, even picking up a victory in Brussels during his first year. In addition, Aston came within one lap of winning the 1951 Grand Prix de Frontieres, his engine seizing within sight of the chequered flag. This good run of results brought him to the attention of the father-and-son duo Charles and John Cooper. Their names may sound familiar to you. They’re better known as the founders of Cooper Car Company, innovators of the rear-engine layout seen in modern F1. Back in 1951 though, their main priority was designing 500cc racers, and they had built a streamlined version of their new Cooper MkV with the aim of shattering the 500cc speed record. Who better to ask to drive the car than 51 year-old fruit farmer Bill Aston himself? With Aston’s frame literally crammed behind the wheel, the MkV went on to set new speed records at a smidgeon under 100 m.p.h. around the heavily banked Linas-Montlhery oval in October 1951. Not a feat to be shrugged at. It seemed like Aston and Coopers’ partnership could go a long way.

Newspaper clipping of Aston being squeezed – rather literally – into the cockpit of the record-breaking Cooper (Photo: 500 Owners Association)

But Aston had other ideas. Coupling his business acumen from his fruit farming pastures with his engineering prowess from his days as a test pilot, Bill Aston was planning to design his own chassis. With the incentive that the World Driver’s Championship was switching to Formula 2 regulations in 1952, Aston set about designing his car around the new ruleset. However, our intrepid hero still had no experience designing a racing chassis from scratch. Perhaps he could ask Cooper for help, given he’d just set a speed record for them……or he could just take their existing T20 chassis, tweak it a little, and name it after himself and another bloke. This is the story of Aston Butterworth.Part 2: Mr. ButterworthIn fairness to Aston, he had made several changes, exterior and interior, to the existing T20 chassis to craft it into his own Aston Butterworth NB41. The biggest change of all revolved around the engine, which is where the Butterworth name comes into play.Archie Butterworth made his name as a prominent hillclimb racer in the late 40’s and early 50’s. Fans were dazzled by his wild, crazy runs with his radical self-constructed AJB special, powered by modified Steyr engines. He set quite a few hillclimb records, including one in Blandford that remained unbeaten for a good ten years. Eventually his brave driving style came back to bite him when he was heavily injured in an incident at Shelsley Walsh which ended his driving career. Butterworth wasn’t done with motor racing though. He could still build a lean, mean racing machine, and so he set about making one of his own.

Archie Butterworth and his bizarro, but fast, AJB-Steyr special (Photo: Allard Owners Club)

Butterworth started designing an innovative engine using parts of the Steyr that led him to hillclimb success. In his mind, he envisioned three different capacities of a flat four engine, 1500cc, 2500cc and the Formula Two-spec 2000cc capacity with an innovation never-before-seen in motorsport: a swing valve. The engine, christened the AJB, was going to be revolutionary in motorsport.However, Butterworth couldn’t get his swing valve design completed in time before Bill Aston came calling. Aston initially planned to purchase a Kuchen V8 engine, but given these were in short supply he approached Archie to get his design ready for Aston’s upcoming project. Butterworth hadn’t yet manufactured the swing valve engine, though, as he was still busy tinkering over its implementation. In a compromise, Butterworth designed a 1984cc “interim” engine minus the special swing valve for the short-term, selling two to Aston for his chassis.Despite being a mere customer, Bill Aston felt it was only right to name the the car ‘Aston Butterworth’, after himself and Archie Butterworth. All this without prior consultation with Butterworth himself…Aston pretty much designed his NB41 around the AJB engine. As the AJB was a flat-four, this allowed him to design a nose much closer to the ground than the factory Coopers. With every component crafted to take advantage of the nose, this allowed for a low bonnet on the NB41. All in all this gave the NB41 a very low centre of gravity compared to its counterparts, allowing for impressive handling. Aston even included a unique swing axle rear suspension, though that was scrapped for a regular Cooper set-up as it proved to be one innovation too unstable for the NB41.Even then, Bill Aston knew that a 52 year old like him had little to no hope of obtaining good results in his car. He turned to one of his friends in 500cc racing, fellow amateur Robin Montgomerie-Charrington, to share duties driving the NB41. Fifteen years younger than Aston, Robin jumped at the chance. Shortly after this arrangement began though, Robin asked for his own, separate chassis. Despite Montgomerie-Charrington being British, he requested the new chassis, designated the NB42, to be painted in American racing stripes to reflect his wife’s nationality.

The two Aston Butterworths lined up in the Silverstone paddock for the Daily Express International Trophy. (Photo: A-Z of Racing Cars)

With a bold engine, a driver of reasonable age and a promising chassis, what could go wrong?Part 3: Aspiring Amateurs with Rough ReliabilityAston Butterworth’s first outing was the non-championship Lavant Cup, only featuring Aston behind the wheel. Despite a decent eighth place finish for Aston, the aforementioned swing axle suspension trouble caused a redesign to be effected in time for the International Trophy in Silverstone the following month. Both Aston and Montgomerie-Charrington had mechanical troubles, failing to finish their heat races. They were out of the final but more importantly, this result would be an indicator of the poor reliability the cars would suffer through the season.

Even with a recalcitrant car, Montgomerie-Charrington was actually proving himself behind the wheel. Unlike Aston, “Monty” was able to show that the Aston Butterworth had some promise.

At the non-championship Grand Prix de Frontieres on the notorious Chimay Circuit, “Monty” had a fantastic race, finishing in third. Granted, most of the field that day were Belgian gentlemen racers, but still a good result nonetheless. Montgomerie-Charrington had actually run out of fuel with two laps to go, but he was still so far ahead of the rest of the pack that it didn’t matter. With that, they headed to Spa-Francorchamps for their first World Championship Grand Prix.Bill Aston opted to watch from the sidelines and let Montgomerie-Charrington attempt the race himself. Very little was expected of the Cooper clones within the paddock, yet the Brit turned heads by qualifying in 15th, ahead of notable names like Louis Rosier and B Bira. Come raceday itself, “Monty” made a name for both himself and Aston Butterworth. From 15th, he climbed all the way up to seventh by lap 14, which was only two places outside the points positions at the time.

Then came his pitstop. A routine stop, fill the tank, out you go again. From their fuel issues in Chimay, a stop like this was likely necessary. Still, you would think this was a simple enough task…As it turns out, Montgomerie-Charrington’s car was filled with the wrong kind of fuel. Two laps later, the engine started sputtering. Aston Butterworth threw away a promising result in their first race.Robin Montgomerie-Charrington would only take part in a few more non-championship events with Aston Butterworth before leaving motorsport altogether. The true reason he left is unknown, but his finishing record with the team wasn’t exactly a high note to go out on. A broken gearbox in Silverstone, clutch issues at Monthlery, running out of fuel at Chimay, the fuel mix up at Spa, a loose wheel at Monza and a broken universal joint at Reims. If you count his third at Chimay as a failure to finish, “Monty” didn’t finish a single race in the Aston Butterworth.

Bill Aston faced a rather similar situation while racing his designated NB41 in a couple of non-championship races. In his case fuel flow issues dogged his car, so he developed a cunningly simple solution: MORE FUEL PUMPS. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), this often backfired, the car running out of fuel quicker than others (hence “Monty”’s issue in Chimay) or even catching fire due to incompetent engineering on Aston’s part. As such, Aston mirrored Montgomerie-Charrington’s results of constant DNFs. His car couldn’t even go the distance in the seven-lap Madgwick Cup in Goodwood before pulling to a halt.Part 4: Race Your Own InventionWith Robin Montgomerie-Charrington leaving motorsport entirely to emigrate to the United States, “Big Bill” was the only driver left for his own team, but there was no way he was going to let his advanced age hinder him. Keen to make an impact, he went and entered a few more World Championship races by himself, starting with the 1952 British Grand Prix.

At Silverstone, Bill Aston was about to enter his first ever Grand Prix at 52 years, 3 months and 21 days old. In his own car, unreliable even by the standards of the day. To say he fared terribly is an understatement.

In practice, Aston was 1 minute and 28 seconds behind Nino Farina’s pole time of 1m50s. The lack of pace was more down to the NB41’s problems than Aston’s driving itself, but there was no escaping that terrible qualifying time.Even though there was no risk of failing to qualify at Silverstone – Harry Schell and Emmanuel de Graffenried still made the grid without setting a time – Aston wisely withdrew before race day, knowing there were major issues that had to be sorted. By the time the German Grand Prix rolled around, Aston tweaked the AJB engine, fitting in a new carburettor and cylinder heads. Incredibly, Aston’s updates to the engine actually worked. He qualified the car 21st, mired amongst the mass of German one-off entrants but still a decent effort in a field of 34. On the first lap, Felice Bonetto spun his Maserati in front of the entire field. Aston was able to get through the mess and made up plenty of time, climbing to a superb 10th place by the end of lap 1 . As usual though, the Aston Butterworth did not survive the torrid pace, the oil pressure disappearing on lap 2 forcing Aston to retire the car before more damage was done.

Aston would make one last attempt at a World Championship race that season, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Having being designed to provide optimal handling, the Aston Butterworth looked like it would struggle around one of the fastest tracks on the calendar. To combat this, Aston attached a Cooper-style air intake on top of the Aston Butterworth’s low bonnet.

All that achieved though was make the NB41 look even more like a Cooper clone than it already was. The AJB engine was too gutless to set a fast time. Aston was only 31st fastest and unlike Silverstone, Monza’s grid was limited to 24 entrants. That failure to qualify would prove to be the Aston Butterworth’s last assault in the World Championship.

Unfortunately for Aston, his funds were depleting at a rapid rate. No fruit farm could harvest enough money for Aston to continue developing his pet project. He would still enter a few local Formula Two races with his NB41, but had almost nothing to show for it. Bill was only able to achieve a seventh and an eighth in separate races at Crystal Palace, hardly impressing anyone. He couldn’t source the funds required to take the Aston Butterworth overseas anymore. By the time the World Drivers’ Championship adopted the new 2.5 litre Formula One regulations in 1954, Bill Aston had shelved the Aston Butterworth project for good.Everybody involved in Aston Butterworth went their own separate ways following the project. Robin Montgomerie-Charrington emigrated to the USA as mentioned earlier, but came back to Britain in his elder years and was seen at historic racing meets from time to time. Archie Butterworth soldiered on with the development of his AJB engine, partnering with Elva Cars alongside his good friend Archie Scott Brown. Butterworth even planned to enter an AJB-powered Cooper into a couple of Formula One races with him, but withdrew the entry and quit motorsport entirely after Scott Brown’s fatal accident in 1958. Finally, Bill Aston was still a spirited racer, often competing in club meets in Minis and Jaguars, winning races well into his 60’s before passing away in 1974.

The two Archies: Scott-Brown (middle left) and Butterworth (middle right) in their time together while racing. (Photo: Elva Cars)

The chassis themselves have had their own journeys over the years. Bill Aston’s primary NB41 chassis was sold to Dickie Metcalfe, who converted it to a Climax-engined sports car. “Monty”’s NB42 has a more storied history though. Originally sold off to VSCC racer Bill Wilks, the car was passed around like a hot potato amongst owners for quite a while, minus its AJB engine. Eventually, chassis NB42 was reunited with an AJB, though this one was a spare from Butterworth’s later association with Archie Scott Brown.

NB42 was then sold at a Bonhams auction in Goodwood during 1999 alongside a variety of engines, including the original used by Aston. Owner David Brock Jest managed to restore the car to running condition, and NB42 was set to make a return to the racetrack at the 2004 Monaco Historic Grand Prix.

In true Aston Butterworth fashion, the car did not start.

It would still be used heavily in historic meets afterwards, though, and was once again on the auction block at the Bonhams auction in Goodwood during 2016, valued at a cool £60,000 – £80,000.

The NB42 in its present day-guise (Photo: Bonhams Auctions)

The car certainly had some potential. Archie Butterworth definitely thought so with his engine, but he didn’t like how Bill Aston and Robin Montgomerie-Charrington handled the project. In an interview with Motorsport Magazine in 1984, Butterworth remarked that with the copycat Cooper chassis, the project’s “real name should have been Cooper-AJB” and said of Bill Aston with this golden quote: “You can’t win with that level of competency”. He thought of them as two spirited amateurs lacking the professionalism required to succeed in Grand Prix racing.

]]>Super Aguri Part 3: Judge, Aguri and Executionerhttps://gprejects.com/teams/super-aguri-part-3-judge-aguri-and-executioner
https://gprejects.com/teams/super-aguri-part-3-judge-aguri-and-executioner#commentsThu, 19 May 2016 09:05:22 +0000http://gprejects.com/?p=425One of GPRejects.com’s favourite modern teams, we take an indepth look into the history of Super Aguri and analyse their trials and tribulations through their short history in Formula 1. This final segment looks at the team’s last season, their legacy and life after F1.

A year previously, Super Aguri had started 2007 with renewed optimism after an excellent end to the final Grand Prix of 2006, and with a reworked, successful Honda chassis would enjoy a thrilling start to the season. 2008 would be the antithesis of those heady days.

In the previous chapter, Super Aguri were able to embarrass their “parent” team Honda. Under the technical stewardship of Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda had completely dropped the ball with their design of the RA107. In a candid interview with Murray Walker in 2016, Jenson Button commented:

“We went in a direction with the car and it was completely the wrong direction, and you can see that by the design […], it was completely different to everything else and it just didn’t work.”

Unlike the SA07, which was based on the RA106 which had claimed a race win and podiums, the SA08 would be a reworked RA107, a car that could only score points on three occasions in 2007. Unless the severely understaffed Super Aguri engineering department could unlock something magical from the chassis, the writing would be on the wall before the season could even kick off. Due to the financial issues constraining the team after the non-payments from SS United, the workforce would become even further reduced; the team had to lay off approximately twenty staff members. The key staff would remain; Daniele Audetto and Mark Preston were still key figures, whilst Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson fully deserved their places; both had done a fine job in 2007, and although the team was linked with GP2 Series hotshot Luca Filippi, Aguri Suzuki elected to stick rather than twist. James Rossiter, having done a few tests in 2007 for Super Aguri, would become the formally nominated reserve.

The customer cars row had also been settled after a number of appeals (largely from the Spyker team, which had now become Force India over the winter), and it was decided that any customer outfits were obliged to become a constructor in their own right in time for the 2010 season. Whilst this would be no problem for Toro Rosso due to their healthy finances, it left Super Aguri in a very critical situation indeed; in the next year-and-a-half, they would have to get the money together in order to design and build their own cars, assuming they made it that far in the first place. With no extra funds, Aguri Suzuki would have his work cut out coaxing the Leafield-based outfit as far as the end of 2008.

In order to ensure his team’s finances would be secure, Suzuki would need to either find a sponsor to replace the void left by SS United, or sell a chunk of his team to someone flush with cash. Despite the Honda backing, there were few Japanese businesses looking to support Super Aguri, presumably seeing little value in a small UK-based team with a customer package. Hence, the most lucrative option appeared to be to broker a sale of the team. Over the 2008 pre-season, Super Aguri would be linked with a number of wealthy individuals and businesses looking to add a Formula 1 team to their portfolio.

As discussed in the previous chapter, Adrian Campos and Alejandro Agag held talks to purchase the team, but ultimately their overtures came to nothing. Whilst Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal was also mentioned as a prospective buyer (and had recently purchased Queens Park Rangers F.C. with Agag, Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore) this was ultimately yet another tall story in the notoriously unreliable Formula 1 rumour mill. Another billionaire was later linked with the Super Aguri keys; this was American retail magnate John Menard, the man behind the Menards chain of home improvement stores. Menard already had ties with Super Aguri; he was the leaseholder of their Leafield base, and the team were paying him a heavy premium in order to manufacture parts in his facilities. However, Menard eventually passed up the opportunity of taking on a Formula 1 team.

Martin Leach (centre) in talks with Aguri Suzuki (l) and Mark Preston (r). Leach’s Magma Group had an agreement to purchase Super Aguri.

In March, prior to the season’s commencement in Melbourne, a serious bidder for Super Aguri had finally emerged. The Magma Group, led by former Maserati head Martin Leach, had disclosed that they had been in talks with Aguri Suzuki and his business partner Fumio Akita and that a takeover deal was on the horizon. Magma, an automotive consultancy, also had their product development arm UltraMotive based at Leafield. Leach had a number of investors lined up to buy into the team, and having worked with Nick Fry at the Ford Motor Company he would presumably receive the Honda team’s seal of approval. Then, a few days after Magma’s intent to buy the team was reported, they and Super Aguri announced that a deal had been agreed in principle. Honda would continue to provide technical support and engines. After the doomsayers’ chorus at the start of 2008, things were starting to look up for the Super Aguri team.

Sato at Melbourne in 2008. He would retire from the race with transmission problems.

The upcoming race at Melbourne was almost an afterthought, considering the amount of boardroom action over the winter months; it was a rush to get a pair of cars ready for the first race of the season, and getting to Australia was a minor miracle for the team. To nobody’s surprise, Super Aguri were not at all quick with their SA08, and could only sandwich Nelson Piquet Jr at the bottom of the timesheets as the rookie Brazilian struggled to get the most out of his Renault and qualified a lowly 21st.

Although Sato would retire midway through the action-packed Australian Grand Prix with a gearbox failure, Davidson’s race would last no longer than the first lap. The Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella was sent airborne and collected Sebastian Vettel, whilst Davidson became tangled in amongst the carnage with Jenson Button and Mark Webber; all five would retire from the grand prix as a result. This was an unwelcome state of affairs, as Super Aguri had struggled for spare parts during their winter test program, and having to replace various bits and pieces would cut into their already short supply.

Qualifying would be a similar story in Sepang, as Adrian Sutil this time qualified between Sato and Davidson at the rear of the field. Both Super Aguris were able to finish the notoriously difficult grand prix in Malaysia to the relief of the team, albeit in 15th and 16th (crucially, Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima was the final man on-track). Bahrain would have the two SA08s occupying the final row of the grid, although both cars again managed to finish the grand prix above the last couple of classified drivers as Sutil and David Coulthard would get caught in collisions, putting paid to any chances of a good result for them that afternoon.

Sato at Bahrain. At this point, the team were simply trying to keep afloat.

The races, admittedly, have played out as a secondary plot in this part of the story about Super Aguri, and for good reason. The team had been living a hand-to-mouth existence over the past few months having never recovered from the loss of SS United; whilst the team had sponsorship deals with Japanese companies Autobacs and Samantha Thavasa, these were very small deals and it became clear that Honda were once again footing most of the bill. The team were waiting on the completion of the Magma takeover, but on the team’s return from the flyaway races it became apparent that Martin Leach and his company were not going to be able to purchase Super Aguri at all.

Across the world, the global financial crisis of 2007-08 was biting hard, and in times of relative austerity even the richest of businessmen were feeling the pinch. Magma’s investors were involved with Dubai International Capital, and were offering a large sum of money for Liverpool FC at the time; it seemed that being able to invest in Super Aguri was be a stretch too far and DIC were unable to justify bailing out a Formula 1 team with limited marketing potential. Magma were still in talks with the Dubai-based investors, hoping to secure the $100m required to buy the team, but the loss of an immediate investment was a huge blow to the team. Many journalists involved in Formula 1 were predicting that Super Aguri wouldn’t survive after the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix. The team would still race in Barcelona, having scrimped and saved enough to send the cars and personnel out to the Circuit de Catalunya, but any further participation in F1 would be wholly dependent on finding an investor in time for the Turkish Grand Prix.

Super Aguri in their final race at Barcelona. The car featured significantly less red than before, unlike their balance sheets.

Both Super Aguris qualified on the final row once again in Spain, to no real surprise; in the race, Davidson pulled into the pits on lap nine with overheating issues and was wheeled back into the garage. Although Sato finished, the Japanese driver was out on his own with little to do and completed the race a lap down on winner Kimi Raikkonen. The race was of little consequence, but Aguri Suzuki had a final possible buyer lined up to pick up the pieces, named Franz-Josef Weigl.

A successful German automotive parts businessman, Weigl had managed to conclude a deal with the Super Aguri management to take over the majority shareholding in the team, but didn’t appear to have the overall financial backing in order to run the team in the long term future; the Weigl deal would be nothing more than a stay of execution. It was not just Super Aguri involved in talks, but Honda too; Super Aguri were approximately $100m in debt to Honda and so the Japanese automotive giant had to agree a debt payment plan with prospective investors to recoup their losses. Whilst Aguri Suzuki and his partners were presumably happy for Weigl to take on the team to subsequently find further investment, Honda were not.

Honda, despite their unwavering support, wished to cut the umbilical cord to Super Aguri; fronting most of the cost for two teams was not good for business, and with the financial crisis would later toy with the idea of leaving Formula 1 altogether. Having Weigl take over the Super Aguri team would simply extend the time that Honda would be without their money, since no debt payment was forthcoming until Super Aguri were on firmer terrain. Furthermore, would Honda have to bail out the team again if Weigl didn’t have enough money to keep the team going?

Honda Racing CEO Nick Fry. Fry pulled all Honda support from Super Aguri, cutting their losses rather than waiting for debts to be repaid.

Unsurprisingly, with the uncertainty over finance Honda declined the Weigl deal. Super Aguri had no more potential investors forthcoming, yet somehow were able to get their trucks to Istanbul ready for the Turkish Grand Prix. They wouldn’t be allowed into the circuit; Nick Fry had informed Bernie Ecclestone that Super Aguri would not be racing due to the collapse of all prospective investments in the team. Super Aguri had to turn around and trudge home, one final time.

Aguri Suzuki announced that Super Aguri would cease operations immediately, and in his post-mortem of the team’s demise stated:

“The breach of contract by the promised partner SS United Oil & Gas Company resulted in the loss of financial backing and immediately put the team into financial difficulties. Also, the change in direction of the environment surrounding the team, in terms of the use of customer chassis, has affected our ability to find partners.”

Super Aguri were very much a throwback to the small teams of the nineties; although exceedingly popular, especially in Japan, the team could only attract small sponsors and this stymied any real progress. To their credit, Honda had been bankrolling the team to the bitter end, but it was ultimately an unsustainable situation for either organisation. Super Aguri needed backing and resources in order to design and build their own car if they were to continue in the sport, and Honda needed to focus wholly on their own underperforming operation. Due to the economic collapse around the world, Honda later announced that they would be withdrawing from Formula 1 at the end of 2008. Even if Super Aguri had survived the season, their future would be questionable without the prospect of Honda’s support. Although another engine deal would be obtainable, another close partnership with a manufacturer would not.

Epilogue

Super Aguri would be placed in administration after the team’s demise, under the leadership of administrators PKF Limited who had previously presided over the administration of both the former Prost and Arrows teams. However, due to the complications over the Concorde Agreement and whether Super Aguri had voided their entry by not participating in the Turkish Grand Prix, there were no forthcoming bidders. Creditors voted to move the company to the liquidation stage, and so on the 7th July, 2008, the liquidators were called and the remaining assets for sale.

Although Super Aguri would never reach the stratospheric heights of championship battles in Formula 1 during their stay, they would indirectly become a presence in the championship battle of the following season. The other outfits on the grid slowly assimilated the former Super Aguri staff, and thus knowledge of any technical projects that had been undertaken within the Leafield Technical Centre, into their own operations. When Brawn GP – borne from the ashes of the Honda team – emerged in 2009 with their BGP001 car, it had come bearing a highly controversial “double-diffuser”.

The Brawn BGP001. According to reports, former Super Aguri engineers contributed greatly to the success of the car.

The 2009 technical regulations had stripped away a large number of aerodynamic devices that had become prevalent in the recent specification of F1 car, and in doing so removed a lot of the downforce that a car could produce. Brawn, as well as Williams and Toyota, had arrived at the pre-season tests with their double-diffuser, which was later attributed to the cross-pollination of ideas from the former Super Aguri engineers.

After Super Aguri closed its doors, their former drivers – due to their reasonable success in the motorsport world – had reasonably secure futures. Anthony Davidson, perhaps predictably, returned to Honda to assume his old testing position; he also continued in the role after the Brawn buyout, before making a successful move to the World Endurance Championship. Takuma Sato also looked to remain in F1, having been considered by Toro Rosso to replace Sebastien Bourdais, who had disappointed in the sport after his four consecutive ChampCar titles. Bourdais retained his seat, and Sato later turned to Indycar to continue his racing career.

Conor Daly driving for Hilmer Motorsport’s GP2 team in 2013. Hilmer had purchased the former Super Aguri assets to run the team.

What of their assets? Following the liquidation process, they were purchased by composite design company Formtech GmbH with the intention of improving the firm’s presence in international motorsport. In 2009, Formtech would be behind an audacious bid to join the Formula 1 circus as an entrant; owner Franz Hilmer had purchased the rights to the Brabham name and submitted an entry for the 2010 tender process, to the disappointment of Sir Jack Brabham and his family. With plenty of perfectly serviceable race equipment and several former Super Aguri employees working for the composites department, “Brabham” seemed like one of the better equipped candidates to join the grid. However, Hilmer and his plans were ultimately scuppered; the German would unsuccessful in his plans to enter Formula 1, later forming a team to join GP2 under the “Hilmer Motorsport” moniker.

After his F1 venture had ended, Aguri Suzuki returned to Japan to continue running ARTA in the Japanese GT series with success, before later announcing his intentions in 2013 to join the brand new Formula E series with the “Super Aguri Formula E Team”. His announcement included a concept livery bearing a likeness to his former SA06 F1 car. The team would also recruit some familiar faces; Mark Preston would be the Team Principal, whilst former Super Aguri designer Peter McCool would be technical director. After rumours of a partnership with Alejandro Agag during his F1 foray, Aguri Suzuki would finally be working with the Spanish businessman in some capacity; this time, Agag being the CEO of promoters Formula E Holdings.

Super Aguri Formula E later dropped their plans for a “classic” red/white livery, as a title sponsorship deal would be forthcoming with insurance giants Amlin; Amlin Aguri would run with a striking metallic blue livery, and signed former Indycar racer Katherine Legge to partner DTM driver and former Red Bull protégé António Félix da Costa. However, the team would have to find a replacement for Da Costa in Beijing, as the Portuguese driver was racing in DTM that weekend. Covering Da Costa would be none other than Takuma Sato, reuniting with Suzuki, Preston and McCool after six years apart.

Felix da Costa (l), Duran (c) and Aguri Suzuki (r) in 2015.

Sato’s race in Beijing lasted a short while before succumbing to mechanical issues, before handing back over to Da Costa for the next eight races; Da Costa took Aguri’s first Formula E victory at Buenos Aires after a spate of suspension failures put leaders Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi out of the race. At the last round of the 2014-15 season, Da Costa would miss the double-header in Battersea Park due to DTM commitments again, and so another Super Aguri alumnus would provide cover; Sakon Yamamoto would join Salvador Duran at the team for the final pair of races; Duran previously having replaced Legge after two races. Yamamoto would also suffer reliability issues in London, with a recurring battery issue that would ensure that the Japanese driver could do nothing but retire in both races..

Team Aguri’s Gulf-sponsored 2015-16 car. The team remained with the Season 1 powertrain.

After Amlin defected to the Andretti team, Suzuki’s charges would be known simply as “Team Aguri” for the 2015-16 championship. Aguri retained Da Costa for a second season, and Nathanael Berthon would partner him after Duran joined the Trulli GP team. Trulli GP withdrew from the championship after two rounds; their Motomatica powertrain had a plethora of technical issues, and the team was unable to run at either Beijing or Putrajaya. Duran left the team after Beijing and later rejoined Aguri as Berthon had failed to adapt to the series in his three races with Aguri, and was a way off of Da Costa’s overall performance. Whilst Team Aguri continue racing in Formula E, securing Gulf sponsorship partway through their second season, Aguri Suzuki announced that he was to leave at the end of the 2015-16 season after Chinese Media Capital announced their intentions to purchase the team. This move brought Aguri’s time as a team owner in single-seater racing to an end once again, for the time being at least.

]]>https://gprejects.com/teams/super-aguri-part-3-judge-aguri-and-executioner/feed1Super Aguri Part 2: The Fast and the Aguri-oushttps://gprejects.com/teams/super-aguri-part-2-the-fast-and-the-aguri-ous
https://gprejects.com/teams/super-aguri-part-2-the-fast-and-the-aguri-ous#commentsThu, 12 May 2016 20:50:35 +0000http://gprejects.com/?p=423One of GPRejects.com’s favourite modern teams, we take an indepth look into the history of Super Aguri and analyse their trials and tribulations through their short history in Formula 1. This second segment looks at the team’s second season, their rise through the ranks and their subsequent fall.

New Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson in 2002, in one of two appearances for Minardi.

In direct contrast to their preparations for their first season, Super Aguri had the benefit of time to work on their plans for 2007 instead of enduring the chaotic rush to get two cars ready for the first race. Furthermore, the team looked in good shape; Honda’s Japan-based research and development division were able to allocate more time to Super Aguri, who were able to go on a small recruitment drive to bolster their ranks. It was announced in the latter stages of 2006 that Takuma Sato would have the British driver Anthony Davidson partnering him at Super Aguri. Davidson – a former karting adversary of Jenson Button – had been a long-time tester for BAR/Honda and over his career had been linked with a number of race drives within the sport. Despite this, his only race experience in F1 thus far had come in a trio of outings, two covering for Alex Yoong for Minardi in 2002 which both ended in early retirements, and a third in 2005 covering for Takuma Sato at BAR. Davidson would be evidence of the stronger partnership with Honda, and as the new car was unveiled days before the first running in Melbourne their new car – the SA07 – would also draw some heat from within the paddock.

Before the details of the SA07’s conception can be disclosed, it’s important to look at the background rumblings over “customer cars” that had preceded the 2007 season. Customer cars were defined quite simply as a set of designs that were produced by one team and sold to another. Hence, if a team were able to have a parent operation with more resource, they could theoretically purchase their car and run with it, giving them a direct advantage over the teams around them. However, doing so would void a team’s claim to their share of FIA prize money since they would not be legally defined as a “constructor”, thus rendering them ineligible for the “Constructors’ Championship”.

The rearguard of the 2006 field had been Toro Rosso, Midland/Spyker and Super Aguri, and due to their chronic unreliability Williams were just in front of this group in terms of overall championship position. Toro Rosso, the Red Bull B-team, had been able to use a slightly modified Red Bull RB1 in 2006 since the original intellectual property rights of the chassis had belonged to Ford; the car was designed prior to Jaguar selling up to Dietrich Mateschitz’s world-famous drinks operation, and with a rev-limited V10 engine the pedestrian Toro Rosso package would draw no controversy. In 2007, Toro Rosso planned to use the same car as the lead Red Bull team, albeit with a Ferrari engine instead of the parent team’s Renault unit. In order to still be eligible for the Constructors’ Championship, the car was designed by a “third-party” operation named Red Bull Technologies. Predictably, this angered Williams and Spyker who would be at risk of missing out on a greater portion of the FIA prize fund if Toro Rosso offered sterner competition. Instead of joining those protests, Super Aguri pushed ahead with plans to use a modified Honda RA106.

In order to make this deal viable Aguri Suzuki enlisted the services of Paul White, who had been with the team on a contractor basis for a year. White owned a consultancy firm named PJUU Ltd, and through some manoeuvring were able to obtain the intellectual property of the RA106 from Honda. As the designs were now owned by a third party, Super Aguri could license the rights from them and avoid any customer car sanctions levelled by the FIA. After the designs were updated in order to work with the new Bridgestone tyres and with updated aerodynamics, Super Aguri were ready to go racing once again…but not before a little more legal wrangling.

Giedo van der Garde in Super Aguri attire. He would defect to Spyker shortly after, which would involve a later court battle.

In addition to their racing duo of Sato and Davidson, Super Aguri had signed Dutchman Giedo van der Garde as their third/reserve driver; van der Garde had solid results in F3 Euro Series, as well as a healthy supply of backing from businessman Marcel Boekhoorn who had a reputation for turning around failing companies in the Netherlands. Boekhoorn would present a significant source of cash, and Super Aguri were looking to exploit it. Then, out of the blue, van der Garde defected to Spyker, despite Super Aguri claiming to have a legally binding contract with the Dutch driver. Boekhoorn had been one of a number of Netherlands-based investors in the Spyker team and presumably wanted to use the outfit to help van der Garde progress through the ranks of F1. Super Aguri submitted a legal challenge, but perhaps anti-climactically the matter was settled in the middle of the season and van der Garde remained with Spyker. This was a precursor to the fate that would befall van der Garde’s future F1 career, and the Dutchman would later become embroiled in an ugly contract war with Sauber in 2015.

The SA07, launched the day before practice in Melbourne. It would be quick on its first outings.

After the numerous trips to the lawyer’s office over the winter, Super Aguri headed for Melbourne looking to pick up from where they left off in 2006. The team hadn’t had a chance to test the SA07, opting to use the original Honda RA106 in winter testing in order to get their bearings, but Takuma Sato was still able to go 11th fastest in the first free practice session of the season. Usually, first practice isn’t considered a representative view of the order for a given event, so perhaps Sato’s turn of pace could have been overlooked as Raikkonen, Heidfeld and the Toyotas all languished near the bottom of the timesheets whilst Davidson could only manage 18th. To confound the doubters, Davidson and Sato then proceeded to bag 11th and 13th respectively in the second practice session, with Jarno Trulli becoming the meat in the Super Aguri sandwich. In the final practice session on the Saturday morning Davidson coaxed his SA07 to fourth place; the British driver, presumably, had eaten his Weetabix for breakfast.

Having spent the entirety of 2006 mired at the back of the grid, Sato and Davidson were able to escape the first qualifying stage with relative ease for the first time in Super Aguri’s short history. Then, Davidson was able to qualify 11th after beating a number of better-funded outfits in Q2 including Renault rookie Heikki Kovalainen. Sato then proceeded to something unthinkable a year prior; the Japanese driver had managed to make it into the final top-ten shootout! This was partially thanks to Felipe Massa’s Ferrari developing an unspecified mechanical fault; the Brazilian crawled to a halt on-track, and prompted Maranello’s finest to make the first in-season engine change of 2007. Sato couldn’t make any more inroads into the top 10, qualifying a position in front of his team-mate and less than 0.2 seconds behind 9th-placed Ralf Schumacher. Super Aguri were able to achieve this with what was essentially a 2006 car, whilst the full-fat Honda team were struggling hugely with their new RA107. Honda’s novel “earthdreams” livery concept – depicting a map of the Earth – would turn heads, but the car’s inherent lack of pace would turn them back.

Having enjoyed a stellar weekend up until Sunday, the race was comparatively lacklustre for the Super Aguri team; Sato was only able to finish in 12th behind Barrichello’s Honda, whilst Davidson stalled at the lights. Although the Brit got going, he then proceeded to have a scuffle with Spyker’s Adrian Sutil on lap three; the German spun, whilst Davidson had a prompt spell in the air before returning to earth with a bump. Somehow, both cars continued and Sutil collected a number of penalties on his way to 17th, whilst Davidson took 16th despite having to seek medical attention post-race with back pain. Furthermore, Spyker had commenced legal action against Super Aguri, Red Bull and Honda for their part in the customer car saga; this would continue for a number of months.

The next two races in Malaysia and Bahrain were more straight-forward midfield battles; Davidson would be knocked out in Q1 whilst Sato would get to Q2 at Sepang, and vice versa at Sakhir. Race pace was largely the same as it was in Albert Park, although both Super Aguris would suffer from engine failures under the desert sun in Bahrain. Davidson’s failure was late on in the Grand Prix, and thus would be classified 16th for the third consecutive race. Whilst the opening races didn’t entirely represent the progress Super Aguri had made over the winter, it was on the return to Europe where things got incredibly interesting.

Sato crosses the line at Barcelona to score Super Aguri’s first point, to the delight of the team.

As has become customary in modern Formula 1, the Circuit de Catalunya was the first of the European races; to try and improve the on-track product, a chicane was added before the final corner. This perhaps took the challenge out of the final turn, but the safety benefits provided a compelling argument for the reconfigured corner’s inclusion. For the first time since the season opener, both cars cleared the first hurdle in qualifying and would line up 13th and 15th. Whilst the race was no classic, a number of teams made dramatic errors in the pits and coupled with a number of high-profile on-track accidents and retirements, it would be important to pick through the field carefully. This is exactly what Takuma Sato did that afternoon.

After a first-lap fracas between Alexander Wurz, Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella, Kimi Raikkonen retired eight laps later with an electrical issue. BMW proceeded to bring the chaos into the pitlane by failing to secure a wheel correctly to Nick Heidfeld’s car during his second stop, whilst Renault had refuelling issues and this forced Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen to make extra pitstops. With a few other issues plaguing some of the more regular point-scorers, Sato was able to keep his head and ease through the field. His caution paid off, and Sato would claim Super Aguri’s first ever world championship point as he crossed the finish line in 8th place. Cue raptures from the Super Aguri pitwall; after all of their previous travails, the team had a result to underline their hard work. At this stage in the season, Sato’s point would elevate the team above the likes of Toro Rosso, Spyker, and perhaps sweetest of all, Honda.

Things came back to earth with a bump in Monaco. After Super Aguri’s heroics at Barcelona, both drivers were unable to wrestle their cars into Q2; the SA07 simply lacked the grip of the more developed cars on the grid and was clearly disadvantaged in the winding, low-speed streets of Monte Carlo. Perhaps aiming to simply bring both cars home, Sato and Davidson drove tentative races to finish two laps down on winner Fernando Alonso, who would become a much closer adversary in the next Grand Prix.

The Formula One circus reconvened in North America for the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, after a short test at Paul Ricard in France took place. The FIA selected the long-time test venue due to its similarity to the Montreal circuit, and would give the teams a chance to take stock and make the required preparations. Honda test and development driver James Rossiter had undertaken Super Aguri’s running over the two scheduled days, and clearly helped the team gather the data required; although Anthony Davidson beaten to Q2 by Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed by a tenth of a second, Takuma Sato once again left the Honda works team in the shade and outqualified both Barrichello and Button to start 11th.

The Canadian Grand Prix of 2007 will mean different things to different people. Lewis Hamilton will remember this as his first F1 Grand Prix victory, having fended off the advances of Fernando Alonso at the first corner leaving his McLaren team-mate dropping down the field. BMW’s Nick Heidfeld was at his metronomic best, finishing just four-and-a-half seconds behind Hamilton, whilst Alexander Wurz will remember this race as the highlight of his swansong season; having started in a lowly nineteenth, the Williams driver strategically weaved his way to 3rd to take his final F1 podium finish. Further down the grid, an entire team would be a sheer state of euphoria; after a year-and-a-half of trials and tribulations, Super Aguri would endure a gamut of emotions throughout a nail-biting Grand Prix.

As the race had seemingly settled after approximately twenty laps, Adrian Sutil triggered the emergence of the safety car after putting his Spyker into the wall at Turn 4. This proceeded to bunch the field up, and famously led to Robert Kubica’s spectacular barrel-roll on lap 26; after making contact with Jarno Trulli on the run to the hairpin, Kubica ran off track and over a bump which promptly launched his car into wall, past Speed’s stricken Toro Rosso, and into a series of rolls towards the hairpin itself where the BMW eventually came to rest.

Kubica’s crash brought out the safety car once again, and so drivers and teams alike were hurriedly trying to adapt their strategies to accommodate the interrupted nature of the race. Thus, after a series of out-of-sequence pit calls under the safety car, Anthony Davidson was running in 5th position behind Hamilton, Heidfeld, Alonso and Nico Rosberg. Then, Alonso and Rosberg served penalties for previous misdemeanours; running low on fuel, both drivers were forced to pit under the previous safety car when the pitlane itself was closed. Anthony Davidson, in a Super Aguri, was third! After a year of being content to finish races and occasionally outqualify another backmarker, this must have seemed like a dream for Aguri Suzuki and his outfit. Whilst there was still a long way to go, the team must have been looking at several strategy options to keep Davidson in with a chance of a podium.

This is a groundhog, a mammal that Davidson became all too familiar with in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Cue disaster. The Super Aguri mechanics, watching the race from their garage in a dream-like trance, would bolt into life for an unscheduled call; Anthony Davidson had pulled into the pits with front wing damage. It later emerged that a groundhog had crossed the track in front of the Super Aguri and with its last breath had caused enough damage to put a potentially famous result out of the window. Yet, all was not lost. By lap 39, Takuma Sato was 7th behind Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella. This became 6th after Ralf Schumacher stopped, although Sato had to suffer through a painfully long pitstop on lap 50 to get to the end, pushing the Japanese driver down the pack.

It seemed that Canada was not to be, but almost immediately Lady Luck came bearing good fortune for the Super Aguri team. Debris on the circuit ensured that long-time safety car driver Bernd Maylander would certainly earn his wages that afternoon, and he left the pits soon after Sato’s stop. Then, Massa and Fisichella would be black-flagged for leaving the pitlane under a red light earlier in the race. Hope returned to the Super Aguri garage but Sato would have some work to do from 11th, his position as the safety car returned to the pitlane with 17 laps to go. Mark Webber followed the safety car in, thus letting Sato into the top 10. No sooner had the safety car come in, it was out again just over a lap later; fifth-placed Vitantonio Liuzzi dropped his Toro Rosso into the infamous “Wall of Champions”, then compatriot Jarno Trulli ran out of road at turn 2 a mere three laps later. Eight laps left on the clock, and third-placed Rubens Barrichello had to peel into the pits; Sato was in the points again, and he was now hounding Ralf Schumacher every step of the way.

Sato, with dogged determination, hunted down McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, passing the Spaniard with three laps to go.

On lap 65, Takuma Sato picked up the greater traction out of the hairpin and assumed a tow from Schumacher on exit before rounding the Toyota driver for an excellent pass at the chicane before the start-finish straight. Yet, this was a mere dress rehearsal for the final act; in an underfunded team with a car largely from 2006, Sato then caught Fernando Alonso’s McLaren and set about making his intentions clear. His eventual pass, three laps from the end, was a carbon copy of the move on Ralf Schumacher and took 6th from the reigning champion; this would become a famous overtake in the folklore of Formula 1. A famously erratic driver, Sato’s performance at Montreal that afternoon was perfection. Finishing 6th was not just Super Aguri’s best result, but it was a comprehensive swipe at the doubters and detractors. Super Aguri were not just there to make up the numbers, they were there to compete.

As the teams moved south across the border between Canada and the USA to continue their season in Indianapolis, it would become a sad representation of the future of Super Aguri. Having just shown that the team was able to compete with the world’s best teams and drivers, things would only go downhill from there. Perhaps overconfident after his Montreal heroics, Sato’s race at The Brickyard would end on lap 13 after a lazy spin sustained after passing Adrian Sutil’s Spyker. Sato and Davidson would simply drop down the order; despite a legal challenge from the Spyker team who had become worried that Super Aguri were receiving customer parts from the Honda R&D division, it ultimately made little difference to the fortunes of either team. As the lead Honda team upped their development and Toro Rosso dispensed with the volatile Scott Speed and drafted in the highly-rated Sebastian Vettel in his stead, Super Aguri trickled back through the field. Although it was common knowledge that Aguri Suzuki hadn’t managed to secure a great deal of funding for his eponymous team, the second half of the season would involve plenty of financial problems that were dangerous of becoming terminal.

Super Aguri with new Fourleaf backing after SS United failed to pay the team.

At the start of 2007, Super Aguri had managed to receive a seemingly significant amount of backing from SS United Oil & Gas Company; the SS United name appeared comprehensively across their new red and white livery, before it disappeared from the car altogether in September. Citing a breach of contract, it later emerged that SS United had paid their first instalment before subsequently withholding future payments. By August Super Aguri were again pursuing legal action, and whilst the team had replaced the vacant spaces on their livery with Four Leaf logos, it became apparent that Honda were footing most of the bill in the last few races. Four Leaf were a Japanese health food and supplement company, and the Super Aguri management were hoping that the new sponsorship deal would invigorate the team and bring a bit of luck to their races.

Adrian Campos (r) and Alejandro Agag (l) were linked to the takeover of Super Aguri in late 2007. It never materialised, but opened the floodgates to further bids for the team.

Unfortunately, the team were still unable to get over the loss of their main sponsor; apart from a few qualifying heroics in which Anthony Davidson was able to get into Q2 on a smattering of occasions, the team were relegated to being bit-players in race trim and eventually had fallen behind Honda in stark contrast to their early-season upsets, although Super Aguri still held the points advantage. Unable to develop and uncertain of the future, rumours of a takeover slowly began to circulate around Super Aguri. Around the time the Four Leaf deal was signed, former F1 racer Adrian Campos and his business partner Alejandro Agag confirmed that they were in talks with Aguri Suzuki about taking on a minority stake in the team. Although this never came to fruition, Campos’ announcement of his intent was not only a sign for the future of his own racing interests, but opened the floodgates for future takeover rumours.

In many ways, Super Aguri’s 2007 was a coda to their 2006; their second season had started magnificently unlike their freshman year, but slowly unravelled having come together just a season before. In China, strong performances from Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi saw Honda and Toro Rosso catapult themselves above Super Aguri in the World Constructors’ Championship; the reduction in projected prize money caused by the tumble from 7th to 9th after McLaren’s overall disqualification would be another setback in financial terms. The team couldn’t recover in Brazil, and a year after Sato’s heroics at Interlagos, the Super Aguris could only start above the two Spykers whilst sandwiching rookie Kazuki Nakajima in qualifying. They finished in a middling 12th and 14th to end a year that, whilst promising to begin with, would be remembered for a series of legal and financial battles off-track. Keeping continuity in the driver lineup, 2008 would have to be a consolidation year whilst Aguri Suzuki, technical director Mark Preston and managing director Daniele Audetto aimed to bolster the team’s depleted resources from both a technical and fiscal standpoint. The team looked to have a serious takeover deal on the table to mull over through the winter months, but there was still plenty to discuss to make it a viable option.

]]>https://gprejects.com/teams/super-aguri-part-2-the-fast-and-the-aguri-ous/feed1Super Aguri Part 1: Much Aguri About Nothinghttps://gprejects.com/teams/super-aguri-part-1-much-aguri-about-nothing
Thu, 05 May 2016 16:10:25 +0000http://gprejects.com/?p=421One of GPRejects.com’s favourite modern teams, we take an indepth look into the history of Super Aguri and analyse their trials and tribulations through their short history in Formula 1. This segment looks at the birth of the Super Aguri team and their action-packed first F1 season.

The V10 era was no more. In 2006, Formula 1 made the step to replace the 3.0-litre V10s with 2.4-litre V8 engines to reduce the reliance on top speed as part of Max Mosley’s ideas to reshape the sport. Qualifying was overhauled once again too; the one-lap qualifying setup was removed after a short spell with the much-maligned aggregate system, and the current (as of 2016, after the “musical chairs” format was promptly discarded after Bahrain) knockout system made its debut.

However, the sport was also ringing the changes with regards to teams. BMW bought out the Sauber team, ending its association with Williams, whilst Honda had completed its purchase of BAR. At the back of the grid, the rearguard duo of Jordan and Minardi were both bought out and their long-standing identities were changed. Jordan – the operation famed for its indulgence in underdog status and yellow paint – had fallen on hard times by the mid 2000s, and at the end of 2004 were sold to Canadian-Russian steel magnate Alex Shnaider. Whilst the team continued into 2005 under the Jordan guise, the team became Midland F1 in 2006 and sported a clean gunmetal grey, red and white livery. Shnaider lost interest all too quickly, and sold up midway through 2006 to the Spyker automotive concern. Minardi, however, would receive more stable backing through Dietrich Mateschitz’s Red Bull company, and would act as a feeder team to the already established Red Bull Racing team, formerly the Ford-owned Jaguar concern. Then, late in 2005, it emerged that a new team would join the Formula 1 grid.

In order to increase worldwide exposure, the number of manufacturer teams in Formula 1 had grown extensively by the mid ’00s, and that number grew as Honda had completed the aforementioned buyout of British American Racing at the end of 2005. Whilst Jenson Button would remain at the team, Honda elected to partner their lead driver with former Ferrari charge Rubens Barrichello, who had just completed his sixth season as Michael Schumacher’s reluctant rear gunner. On the face of it, this left Takuma Sato without a seat after the Japanese driver had endured a tricky second season with the team, managing a solitary point. Yet behind the scenes, Honda were assessing ways to keep their former junior driver in F1; Sato’s popularity in Japan was still marketable and furthermore, Honda saw the advantage of supporting a B-team within the sport. If Honda were to supply a new team with technical backing, ostensibly Sato would be able to drop straight in to the new team.

Aguri Suzuki launches his eponymous F1 team in Tokyo in November 2005.

Enter Aguri Suzuki. Having enjoyed something of a journeyman career in Formula 1 (the highlight being a 3rd place at Suzuka for Larrousse in 1990), Suzuki had spent recent years running his ARTA team in the Japanese GT classes, winning the GT300 championship in 2002 with Morio Nitta and Shinichi Takagi’s efforts in the team’s Toyota MR-S. After negotiations with Honda to provide support to his own team, Suzuki submitted an entry to join the F1 circus a little over two weeks before the FIA’s November 15th deadline. Although he failed to submit the $48m entry bond in time, Suzuki eventually managed to scrape the money required together and received the all clear to join the fray. Super Aguri F1 was born. Despite the comical, cartoonish name, Aguri had put together a very competent core of personnel. Former Arrows and McLaren engineer Mark Preston would assume the role of technical director, whilst the managing director would be Daniele Audetto, a man who’d been on the F1 scene in various roles since 1976.

Since Super Aguri lodged their application so late in the day, the car was almost an afterthought and there was no time to design and build a car from scratch. The FIA had blocked the team’s overtures to use the 2005 BARs, although curiously they had fewer qualms in later seasons amidst controversy over customer cars. However, it just so happened that there were some cars up for sale; former Minardi owner Paul Stoddart had no further use for a set of Arrows A23s, which he had purchased to assess its merits over his own Minardi cars. It didn’t matter that the cars would be four years old; the A23 chassis would work just fine as a base for the team to quickly make the required alterations for their SA05 cars, before introducing their 2006-spec car later in the season. It was almost a fitting acquisition, as Super Aguri had decided to settle in the former Arrows facility at Leafield, and a large portion of the staff had been with Arrows before their financially-driven closure at the end of 2002.

As was Honda’s intention in their support of the new team, Takuma Sato would join as the lead driver. Despite a reputation for being wild and aggressive on-track, Sato also had a beaming smile and had legions of support from his home country. He also had a lot of experience, owing to his time as test driver at BAR before joining Jordan to race in 2002, where he sustained a number of well-publicised shunts. Despite an excellent 5th place at his home race at Suzuka, Sato returned to test at BAR at the end of the season. He would get another chance to race, as Jacques Villeneuve was relieved of his duties at the end of 2003 having been comprehensively beaten by new team-mate Jenson Button. “Taku” scored once again at Japan to round off the year prior to taking the drive full-time. Sato’s signing was a straight-forward process, but finding the right driver for the second seat seemed like a far more laborious process.

Initially, it seemed that long-serving BAR test driver Anthony Davidson would have a chance at adding to his brace of outings for Minardi in 2002, but Aguri was adamant that he would promote Japanese talent in both cars. His final selection was certainly a left-field choice; whilst Jordan had done some running with Sakon Yamamoto in 2005 – making him seem like an obvious choice for the team – Suzuki instead settled for the services of Formula Nippon front-runner Yuji Ide. The news of Ide’s signing was met by a chorus of “who?” in mainstream media, such was the obscurity of the new addition to the grid.

So, who was this man of mystery? On the face of it, he seemed like a reasonable choice; Ide was runner up to Satoshi Motoyama in the 2005 Formula Nippon championship, and was 3rd behind future endurance legend Andre Lotterer and JGTC dabbler Richard Lyons in 2004. Although a number of F1 drivers have emerged from the top level of Japanese single-seaters, most had experience in European racing competitions beforehand. This is the point at which his signing seemed perhaps a little less conventional, as Ide had spent his entire racing career in Japan save for a solitary season in French Formula 3. He would also begin his debut season in Formula 1 at the ripe old age of 31. The learning curve would be huge, and the challenge was magnified by the situation in which Ide found himself; in a UK-based team with predominantly English-speaking staff Ide had been unable to grasp the language, causing some friction between he and his engineers.

Both iterations of the Super Aguri SA05 in testing. Note the sculpted sidepods and engine cover, the extra winglets and the drooping nose in the image on the right.

Amazingly, Super Aguri made it to the preseason tests at Barcelona with both SA05 cars; in the first week of testing, the car amounted to nothing more than the original A23 with a white livery, a few Bridgestone stickers and a Honda-adorned rear wing, but the team returned for the second week with completely revised aerodynamics; the sidepods had been sculpted to improve airflow towards the rear of the car, whilst the nosecone had been fitted with a more pronounced “droop”. The old twin-keel suspension mounts were retained, despite the design having fallen out of favour some years prior by the majority in favour of a zero-keel design. The car had also received a lick of red and black paint, which were traditional Japanese racing colours. Despite limited running over the two tests (Ide, for example, managed only 44 laps in total), Super Aguri were heading to the season-opener in Bahrain after just four months of preparation.

Super Aguri’s first Grand Prix! This is Sato at Sakhir on his way to finishing last, four laps down on the leaders.

To nobody’s surprise, both SA05s finished bottom of the timesheets at Sakhir in the new knock-out qualifying format; both Sato and Ide were unable to progress through to the second part of qualifying. Sato was some three seconds off of 16th-placed Vitantonio Liuzzi in Q1, whilst Ide was another 2.8 seconds slower than his team-mate. Only Kimi Raikkonen was able to keep both Super Aguris off the back row, as the McLaren driver suffered a spectacular suspension failure during his timed lap and was unable to continue. It was something of an extended test session for the Super Aguri team, and Sato was able to finish the race, albeit four laps down on winner Fernando Alonso. Ide meanwhile suffered an engine failure on lap 36, and so was unable to get the running he desperately needed to acclimatise to the rigours of Formula 1. It was a similar story at the next race in Malaysia; although both cars started remarkably high up the grid due to a spate of engine-change penalties, Sato was three laps down in last and Ide retired with a throttle problem.

Super Aguri recorded their first double-finish at Melbourne; for the first time since the circuit opened in 1996, Albert Park was not holding the season opener as the city of Melbourne was committed to hosting the Commonwealth Games in March. In the absence of engine penalties in the latter half of the field, both SA05s occupied the final row for the first time, Ide clocking in a time almost four seconds slower than Sato and a lap down on his team-mate in the race. Sato was only two laps down on Alonso this time, albeit aided by the frequent appearances of the safety car in an eventful Australian Grand Prix. It was the weekend Super Aguri needed, although a reprimand for Sato for ignoring blue flags was the only real blot on the team’s copybook.

After a whirlwind few months in which the Super Aguri team had formed, prepared their cars and participated in three races, the three-week break between racing in Australia and the first leg in Europe provided the team some much needed respite, although more work was needed to close the gap to fellow frequent Q1 stragglers Midland and Toro Rosso. Although the SA05 had a new front wing at Albert Park (cascade wings were integrated into the front wing endplates to improve the front-end downforce output), the team geared up for the next race at Imola with another development, a crisp new livery; swooping red flashes were now added to the sidepods and engine cover. It was just as well, since one of the cars in particular would garner plenty of publicity in the next race.

Ide’s (L) infamous collision with Albers’ Midland (R). The Super Aguri driver was replaced, before having his FIA superlicense revoked.

The two rows at the back of the grid at Imola were occupied by the two Midlands, then the two Super Aguris; Tiago Monteiro was 19th, Christijan Albers 20th, Sato 21st and Ide 22nd. Sato would make it past Albers at the start, leaving him at the behest of Ide behind him. Then, at the Villeneuve chicane, Ide clumsily clattered into the side of Albers and pitched the Dutchman into a series of barrel-rolls which ended with the car upside down, wooden plank on show. Ide, perhaps amazingly, seemed to escape with just a slightly broken front wing and was able to pit for a replacement after the safety car had been called to the circuit. Yet, it emerged that his left-front suspension had sustained damage, calling his race to an end on lap 23. Super Aguri would manage a double-DNF which was in stark contrast to their previous weekend; Sato later pulled over at Rivazza with an unspecified problem. Although Ide managed to escape the stewards’ office with just a slap on the wrist, the FIA would take a far dimmer view of the overall proceedings at Imola.

Yuji Ide at Imola. The Japanese driver struggled to acclimatise to the rigours of Formula 1.

At this juncture, it might be considered that perhaps the criticism of Ide levelled thus far is a little harsh; his experience of Formula 1 had been minimal at this point, and he’d been drafted in at a late stage in his career with minimal testing. Yet, there are multiple examples of drivers with much less experience who have managed to be successful in the top tier of international racing. In contrast, Ide had done little to prove that he wasn’t completely out of his depth. Imola seemed to be one step too far, and the FIA decided that action had to be taken on whether the Japanese driver was too much of a menace to the other drivers on the grid.

The FIA would make a definitive assessment on Ide’s further participation after the European Grand Prix at Nürburgring, but recommended that in the meantime Super Aguri should bench Ide in favour of former Renault test driver Franck Montagny; the Frenchman had plenty of testing experience and was regarded as having strong feedback; he helped to develop the Dallara GP2/05 for the GP2 Series as part of his Renault duties. Montagny almost immediately matched Sato for pace in the practice sessions, and whilst he had issues on his qualifying lap causing him to not set a representative time, Montagny proved he was a far more adept driver than the man he replaced. The team sustained another double-DNF, as both cars disappeared from the circuit with hydraulics issues.

Then on the 9th May, the FIA made their decision. They decided to revoke the superlicense of Ide, deciding he was an unsuitable driver for the sport. Perhaps they were right, since Ide spent an alarming amount of time either off the road or facing the wrong way, and the collision with Albers only served to add to the FIA’s qualms about his ability. Ide returned to Japan to restart his Formula Nippon career, tail between legs, with Dandelion Racing.

Montagny’s final race at his home GP at Magny-Cours. The Frenchman never got much of a chance to showcase his talent in F1.

For the time being, Montagny would continue in the #23 car despite rumours of Hiroki Yoshimoto dropping his GP2 program to restore an all-Japanese lineup. Unfortunately for Franck, his long-awaited chance to prove his worth counted for nothing; Super Aguri suffered a number of retirements – largely mechanical, although Sato was responsible for a couple of wayward spells. At this stage, long-term fixes were not particularly forthcoming as the technical team had their complete focus on getting the new SA06 ready for its eventual debut in Germany. To improve their development, Aguri Suzuki made the decision to take on a paying driver to bolster the team’s coffers, at the expense of the popular Montagny. Fittingly, this meant that he would make his final race appearance at his home grand prix at Magny-Cours, and in doing so outqualified Sato to finish the race in 16th and last.

New car, new driver; Sakon Yamamoto joins the team to show off the new SA06 at Hockenheim.

For all intents and purposes, Germany would be Super Aguri’s “proper” start to the season. The team had their SA06 ready, which was a further update of the SA05; it presented a large overhaul of the old car’s aerodynamics, new aluminium-cased gearbox, and the rear suspension was now more equipped to deal with the demands of the 2006-spec Bridgestone tyres. Furthermore, the car again had a fresh, new livery with a red tribal pattern enrobing the car in addition to a brand new driver. After Montagny returned to his third-driver role with the team, Super Aguri had now enlisted the services of Sakon Yamamoto. Yamamoto, as mentioned previously, was originally touted as a candidate for the #23 car; he’d driven for Jordan in free practice at the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix and so had contemporary Formula 1 experience. He also had a broader range of European experience than original occupant Yuji Ide, having driven in the British, German and European Formula 3 categories, albeit with little success. The latter two words could arguably be used to describe Sakon’s F1 career too.

If Montagny was on the pace of Sato and Ide was miles away, Yamamoto was somewhere in between; whilst he was not one of the worst drivers to ever make it to the top level of single-seater racing, he did little to show that he was F1 material. Yamamoto’s first weekend at Hockenheim was a particularly inauspicious beginning to his career, qualifying over three seconds down on Sato before switching to the spare car for the race. He needn’t have bothered, as he retired on lap 1 with mechanical trouble. Afterwards, things started to get a little better; Yamamoto started to reduce the qualifying deficit to Sato, outqualifying his team-mate at Turkey before ruining his hopes of a first finish with a spin. Yamamoto’s first finish came at China – albeit four laps down – having been plagued by a few reliability issues as well as inexperience.

The F1 season was drawing to a close in the flyaway rounds, and after a trying year the Super Aguri team would end on a high note. Up to this point, there has been little mention of Takuma Sato thus far in this article, and that’s largely for a good reason. Whilst the #23 car was occupied by drivers with a great range of styles and abilities, as well as some famous excursions, Sato had a reasonably quiet year…at least, in his own terms. There were plenty of instances where Sato threw his car off the road, but these were largely limited to practice sessions. He crashed rather lazily in Canada late on in the race too where he dropped it into turn four, but by-and-large Sato was able to provide the team with some solid performances and vital racing experience, both important to a team so young.

Yamamoto leads Sato at their (and the team’s) home race at Suzuka. Sato would later finish two laps ahead of his team-mate.

Once the new car had arrived Sato was regularly challenging the Midlands (or Spykers, as they became known in the final few races) and in doing so gave the biggest indication thus far of Super Aguri’s progress at Suzuka, their home race. Firstly, Sato was able to outqualify Tiago Monteiro. Next, the home favourite drove a mature race to finish a mere one lap down on the leaders, remaining ahead of Monteiro’s Spyker. Whilst not a particularly big accomplishment for perhaps the established teams, if it was an accomplishment at all, it represented the huge leaps that Super Aguri had made over the season; the team were accustomed to finishing multiple laps down on the rest of the field, and managing to remain on the same lap as a McLaren, a Williams, a Red Bull and a parent Honda car would be a huge boost. The final race at Brazil would be even better.

Sato at Interlagos, the final race of 2006. It would be Super Aguri’s breakout performance, finishing 10th.

Whilst the crowd at Interlagos would be able to celebrate the victory of a home driver for the first time since 1993 after a fantastic drive from Felipe Massa, the Super Aguri personnel at Leafield would presumably have challenged the Brazilian faithful for noise. Despite a run-of-the-mill qualifying session in which both cars were able to avoid the last spot on the grid since Monteiro failed to set a time, it was in the race where everything came together. Temperatures in Sao Paulo were rising throughout the weekend, and the Bridgestone-shod runners would benefit from this more than their Michelin-running counterparts. Whilst most of the focus was on whether the retiring Michael Schumacher could turn a miracle to snatch a final world title against the odds, onlookers were surprised to see a white-and-red Super Aguri fighting it out within the midfield pack. It was no fluke; Sato was using the hotter conditions to perfection and in the process was beating the better-funded, faster operations of Red Bull and Toro Rosso, as well as the Spyker duo. A 10th position would be Sato’s reward and Super Aguri’s best finish in Formula 1, surely an excellent way to sign out of 2006.